Forty-seven companies have successfully registered via a newly-launched information technology e-business registration platform as of the end of the second week of this month, Ministry of Economy and Finance secretary of state Phan Phalla said.
Six ministries and state-run institutions have been integrated into a business registration system on the platform, also known as the Single Portal, which was launched on June 15 by government representatives.
The six ministries and state institutions listed in the system are the ministries of Interior; Economy and Finance; Commerce; and Labour and Vocational Training, as well as the General Department of Taxation and the Council for the Development of Cambodia.
Another six are planned to be incorporated in the near future.
The Single Portal intends to make the process of registering and opening a business in Cambodia easier and more efficient, and can be accessed at registrationservices.gov.kh.
Phalla, who is also the chairman of the inter-ministerial registration system working group, said: “There’s nothing complicated about the registration – the government took the time to refine the system.”
He said the system will require companies to complete a one-time business registration form and that the entire process takes only eight days.
He added that all business registration data will be automatically transmitted to the six ministries and state institutions for inspection and approval.
“We previously had to go through three or four institutions to register a company, but now we can just log in to the website, complete all the required documents and wait for at most eight days,” he said.
Anthony Galliano, the CEO of financial services firm Cambodia Investment Management Co Ltd, told The Post on Sunday that the Single Portal is essentially a quantum leap for the Kingdom.
Though widely unnoticed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is an extraordinary advancement that the government has achieved and should be heralded, he said.
He noted that registration had been a bureaucratic muddle with overlapping documents handed between ministries and state institutions, often taking more than a month for each to process.
Galliano said: “I have been an advocate of a common company registration gateway, to match the top echelon territories in the region such as Singapore and Hong Kong, where ministerial registration is streamlined and take only days.
“I am amazed at the transformation in company registration in the Kingdom which now takes only days with each ministry digesting common paperwork simultaneously with minimum human interaction.
“We have registered a company in a week, whereas in the past, the three ministries took at least three months, or much more.
“This will be a welcome improvement and advancement for foreign direct investment, and we can now compete with the best in the region for ease of doing business.”
Phalla said the commerce ministry slashed registration fees under the new scheme by 50 per cent, while the registration tax on the new registration documents was waived.
“Businesspeople are no longer required to take a photo and scan their fingerprint immediately after listing,” he said.
Commerce ministry spokesman Seang Thay said registration via the Single Portal will reduce costs and save time.
He lauded the portal as an in-depth government reform to attract investors to the Kingdom.
“This is another success story for the government, and as one of the ministries in the team behind the registration system, we are pleased to hear that the system is working smoothly.
“We invite people and investors who are considering opening a business in Cambodia to use this system and get registered quickly, and save on fees while you’re at it,” said Thay.
